India: Bird Lover Feeds Hundreds of Parrots

An avid bird lover in Chennai feeds hundreds of parrots who visit him in the morning and evening despite the hustle and bustle of the city life.

Not just parrots, but other birds, too, may abandon Chennai if immediate steps are not taken to control the increasing noise pollution in the city.

Bird population has dwindled in recent years due to an unremitting increase in noise pollution.

But despite this scenario, there is heartening news as Sekar, a bird lover, on Tuesday (October 01), said that he feeds nearly five to six hundred parrots every day.

"In the beginning only two parrots used to come to this place and this continued for two years, but after that, these two became four, four became eight and eight became ten and the number went on increasing and today more than 500-600 parrots come here daily. The arrangement of more than 44 lbs. of grains daily has become a challenging task for me. I feed them 22 lbs. of grains in the morning and the same amount in the evening."

Spotting parrots had become a rare sight for the residents of the city, but now hundreds of them visit twice a day for food.

Sekar, said that the birds regularly visit the place even after so much of noise pollution.

"The most astonishing thing about these parrots is that even after so much noise pollution and disturbances from various sources, this being the heart of the city with busy road junctions, these birds regularly visit here and if there is a loud noise, all these birds fly away and will sit on a tree and come back after some time."

Sekar scatters approximately 44 lbs. of rice everyday apart from millet, maize and ragi. He also takes care of their water.

Not only the regular visitor parrots, but crows and sparrows also visit the house.

For more than 20 years, the avid bird- lover and enthusiast is silently feeding the birds with an aim to also build a strong permanent shelter for them.

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